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Turning business jets into mobile/flying offices
In recent years, on-board Internet has become well-established with Lufthansa and other airlines. Business travelers in particular appreciate the opportunity to access their e-mail and work online during a flight. However, passengers on business jets have not yet been able to benefit from these services. Now the BusinessJet Office product from Lufthansa Systems specifically addresses companies and private individuals with their own fleet of aircraft.

The Mobile Access Router, which acts as an on-board server, provides passengers with access to the Internet and to company intranets via a secure VPN connection. A file and fax server and a printer server for controlling printers are also available. Users can therefore send and receive e-mail and faxes online, print out documents on board and manage their data. Simply by opening their laptop, they have access to their entire office environment while on the plane.

Internet connections can be established via Gatelink, GPRS, MPDS or ISDN depending on whether the aircraft is on the ground or in the air and whether the connection will be used for video conferencing. The data transfer rate ranges from 56 kbps with GPRS to 54 Mbps when connecting to Gatelink.

Flight planning as easy as ABC
Flight planning can be rather demanding for small and medium-sized airlines. Routes have to be calculated, Eurocontrol registration deadlines need to be met, and weather data, NOTAMs and other information relevant to a flight must be on hand at all times. To top it all off, flights should be carried out as economically as possible. In order to increase their efficiency and reduce cost pressures, airlines can now outsource this labor-intensive process to Lufthansa Systems. Ocean Airlines and the Afghan airline Ariana have already decided to take advantage of this option.

The flight planning service from Lufthansa Systems is available to customers around the clock. Experts calculate each flight plan and send "briefing packages" to the customer via email, SITA or fax. These briefing packages contain the operational flight plan, which consists of information on routing, diversion airports and fuel requirements, among other things. The flight plans are so detailed that they can be registered with the air traffic control authorities. Weather information and NOTAMs that were calculated for the plan can also be included in the briefing package if desired.